In general, an air bag system serves to reduce injury to occupants of a vehicle by inflating a bag, toward the occupants, in the event of a head-on collision or offset collision. Typically, air bags are disposed inside a steering wheel or a dash panel for protecting the head and chest region of the occupants of vehicles.
Typical devices used for protecting the driver lower extremities, such as the knees, include knee protection brackets mounted on a lower crash pad on the driver's side. However, a drawback of this configuration is that the driver's knees are protected only in a head-on collision and not in offset collisions. Typically, in offset collisions the drivers knees often hit a shroud panel encompassing the steering column because the knees often move in the lateral direction. When the driver's knees hit the shroud panel, the knees are often injured because the shroud panel minimally absorbs the force of an impact. A further drawback of the typical shroud panel knee protection device is that the shroud panel often interferes with the drivers knees upon entering and exiting the vehicle under normal conditions.